FidelityConnects: Passing the Torch: The Future of Fidelity Insights Class®

With markets in motion and a leadership transition ahead, understanding the future trajectory of Fidelity Insights Class® has never been more important.

Join portfolio managers Nidhi Gupta and Matthew Drukker for a timely update on the fund, including current themes, sector positioning, and the research process guiding their decisions. They’ll also discuss the handoff from retiring portfolio manager Will Danoff, and how they plan to maintain continuity while unlocking new areas of opportunity.

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Transcript

[00:00:07.800]

Hello, and welcome to Fidelity Connects.

 

[00:00:10.440]

I'm Agnes Doherty.

 

[00:00:12.040]

After an extraordinary 40-year career at

 

[00:00:15.040]

Fidelity portfolio manager Will Danoff will retire from

 

[00:00:18.200]

day-to-day portfolio management at the end of 2026.

 

[00:00:21.920]

In Canada Will oversees the Fidelity Insights Class Fund

 

[00:00:25.400]

which has compounded at a rate of 17% annualized,

 

[00:00:29.120]

outperforming the S&P 500 by 2% annualized

 

[00:00:32.360]

since its inception in 2017.

 

[00:00:35.320]

The good news is that Will Danoff will remain at Fidelity

 

[00:00:38.560]

in an advisory capacity, ensuring that his investment

 

[00:00:41.560]

knowledge continues to make an impact on both the

 

[00:00:44.640]

organization and investors.

 

[00:00:47.600]

Our next guests currently co-manage the fund alongside

 

[00:00:50.720]

Mr. Danoff and will continue to hold co-manager positions

 

[00:00:54.240]

following his retirement.

 

[00:00:56.880]

What comes next for Fidelity Insights Class as it begins

 

[00:00:59.840]

this new chapter, and how is the portfolio positioned

 

[00:01:02.880]

today as market conditions evolve?

 

[00:01:06.120]

Joining me now to discuss this and to provide an update on

 

[00:01:09.040]

Fidelity Insights Class are portfolio managers,

 

[00:01:12.400]

Nidhi Gupta and Matthew Drukker.

 

[00:01:14.320]

Hello, Nidhi and Matt.

 

[00:01:16.120]

Welcome to Fidelity Connects.

 

[00:01:19.760]

Hi, happy to be here.

 

[00:01:21.400]

Thank you.

 

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Just a reminder to everyone, today's webcast features live

 

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French audio interpretation and we also have a Q and A

 

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box available so please enter any questions that you do

 

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have. Nidhi and Matt, a really interesting fact

 

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about both of you, you started at Fidelity both as interns

 

[00:01:37.160]

back in 2008.

 

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For many people in the audience today they may not have

 

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heard from you before so I think a really nice place to

 

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start the conversation would be to talk a little bit about

 

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your career so far, your journey at Fidelity.

 

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Nidhi, we'll start off with you.

 

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Thank you for having me and thank you everyone for all

 

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the support over the years.

 

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Matt and I actually started as interns in the summer of

 

[00:02:02.800]

2007, we joined full-time

 

[00:02:05.760]

in 2008 so we've been at Fidelity for

 

[00:02:08.800]

almost 20 years.

 

[00:02:10.640]

In that time I've managed several

 

[00:02:14.240]

different funds since 2013,

 

[00:02:17.800]

including Fidelity Advisor New Insights, which I

 

[00:02:20.880]

began managing with Will in

 

[00:02:24.480]

2020 so it's been almost six years on

 

[00:02:27.560]

that partnership.

 

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Before that I was managing about $15 billion of tech

 

[00:02:32.840]

sector funds for Fidelity.

 

[00:02:36.080]

Before that the Communication Services Sector Fund

 

[00:02:39.240]

with strong performance on all of those

 

[00:02:42.840]

products.

 

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I was also our global technology sector leader

 

[00:02:47.640]

for several years.

 

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During that time I covered as an analyst

 

[00:02:53.800]

a lot of the large tech stocks

 

[00:02:57.000]

including Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix.

 

[00:03:02.440]

Throughout my years at Fidelity as an analyst

 

[00:03:06.320]

I actually started on our international team so I

 

[00:03:09.680]

covered several different international industries

 

[00:03:13.840]

including stocks within the industrial sector, the consumer

 

[00:03:17.200]

sector. Prior to Fidelity I've covered the

 

[00:03:20.680]

health care sector.

 

[00:03:23.160]

Together Matt and I, I think, have covered the vast

 

[00:03:25.720]

majority of the S&P 500.

 

[00:03:28.520]

I think, most importantly, we've covered a lot of the

 

[00:03:31.680]

biggest stocks in the index, I mentioned some

 

[00:03:34.640]

of them.

 

[00:03:36.560]

That's been hugely valuable because these are the companies

 

[00:03:39.480]

that are growing the fastest and

 

[00:03:42.640]

really setting the tone for a lot of the

 

[00:03:45.600]

secular trends in the market.

 

[00:03:48.680]

I would say the partnership with Will has

 

[00:03:51.800]

been very organic over the years.

 

[00:03:55.680]

I've worked closely with him on all the stocks I've

 

[00:03:58.840]

covered throughout my career at Fidelity and all the funds

 

[00:04:01.840]

that I've managed, especially when I

 

[00:04:04.880]

covered some of these larger tech stocks that

 

[00:04:08.280]

were some of the biggest positions of his

 

[00:04:11.440]

portfolio that was when we developed a much closer

 

[00:04:14.200]

relationship and he asked me to join him

 

[00:04:17.360]

on Fidelity Advisor New Insights in 2020.

 

[00:04:21.360]

That's been an incredible partnership and we've had really

 

[00:04:24.200]

strong performance on that fund.

 

[00:04:29.360]

Matt and I look to really continue the

 

[00:04:32.880]

tradition with these additional

 

[00:04:36.800]

assets.

 

[00:04:37.800]

Matt, how about you?

 

[00:04:39.120]

What's your Fidelity journey look like?

 

[00:04:42.960]

I think as Nidhi said one of the things that's

 

[00:04:46.400]

really special about this journey to now co-manage

 

[00:04:49.800]

with her is we grew up as investors together.

 

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We covered a lot of different stocks, we managed select

 

[00:04:55.880]

funds and we had the opportunity

 

[00:04:58.960]

to work more and more closely with Will over time.

 

[00:05:02.360]

I became a diversified co-manager with Will two years

 

[00:05:05.480]

ago, so I joined four years after

 

[00:05:08.680]

Nidhi.

 

[00:05:10.960]

I think Will selected both of us because we're drawn to the

 

[00:05:14.000]

same core philosophy that stocks follow earnings.

 

[00:05:18.680]

We also have the same process that focuses

 

[00:05:21.760]

on staying close to the industries, working

 

[00:05:24.840]

with our very strong team of Fidelity analysts to

 

[00:05:27.800]

find opportunities.

 

[00:05:30.520]

We know how to work with the team because we were both

 

[00:05:33.720]

analysts for the

 

[00:05:36.680]

better part of a decade and a half.

 

[00:05:40.080]

We're spending time together, meeting with companies,

 

[00:05:42.760]

including quarterly callbacks, we're continuously

 

[00:05:45.960]

seeking to identify stocks where

 

[00:05:48.920]

growth is underappreciated by the market either

 

[00:05:51.960]

in magnitude or durability.

 

[00:05:54.360]

I think with two of us as co-PMs we can cover even

 

[00:05:57.840]

more ground.

 

[00:06:00.000]

Growing up as investors at Fidelity

 

[00:06:03.160]

we've been through a number of very different market

 

[00:06:06.120]

environments. Early in our careers we were actually interns

 

[00:06:09.720]

in 2007 before the financial crisis so we

 

[00:06:12.720]

started in our seats as that GFC

 

[00:06:16.440]

unfolded. That was a formative experience.

 

[00:06:20.720]

At the time I covered consumer discretionary companies

 

[00:06:23.760]

and I remember Will reminding me,

 

[00:06:27.080]

Matt, restaurants can be the canary in the coal mine for

 

[00:06:29.880]

consumer sentiment.

 

[00:06:31.360]

Consumers are two-thirds of the economy.

 

[00:06:33.160]

When they start to feel less bad you might see it

 

[00:06:36.120]

first in a splurge for better coffee in the morning.

 

[00:06:39.880]

We started tracking

 

[00:06:42.840]

store level activity at Starbucks very closely

 

[00:06:45.880]

and sure enough, when same store sales

 

[00:06:50.320]

stopped getting bad in March 2009 that

 

[00:06:53.560]

turned out to be one of the earliest signs that cycle

 

[00:06:56.680]

had bottomed. That early experience really

 

[00:07:00.000]

reinforced how closely studying businesses

 

[00:07:02.960]

can give you an investment edge.

 

[00:07:05.640]

Of course, the real highlight was going with Will to

 

[00:07:08.800]

meet Howard Schultz and dig into Starbucks' plan

 

[00:07:12.080]

to sustain growth even after the stock had more

 

[00:07:15.080]

than doubled from the lows.

 

[00:07:18.280]

Will always says, just because a stock has doubled doesn't

 

[00:07:20.560]

mean you've missed it. We didn't miss that one.

 

[00:07:24.960]

As Nidhi said, over the next decade I went on to cover

 

[00:07:28.120]

other sectors in communication services.

 

[00:07:30.360]

Tech and communication

 

[00:07:33.800]

services are now about half the market.

 

[00:07:37.960]

Over the time covering tech we've seen these large digital

 

[00:07:41.080]

platforms has really given us

 

[00:07:44.280]

a front row seat to several major technological transitions

 

[00:07:47.400]

from the rise of the internet, the mobile internet,

 

[00:07:50.640]

cloud, the evolution of digital advertising and

 

[00:07:53.760]

video streaming. Mow we're in this next

 

[00:07:56.920]

phase as generative AI begins to

 

[00:07:59.960]

reshape many industries and drive a

 

[00:08:02.960]

big part of the economy.

 

[00:08:04.360]

We feel well prepared for that.

 

[00:08:07.320]

Just throughout all of these environments and

 

[00:08:10.520]

investment trends the constant has been working closely

 

[00:08:13.320]

with Will. His approach has always been bottom-up

 

[00:08:16.680]

fundamental research and a simple idea

 

[00:08:19.920]

that over the long run stocks follow earnings.

 

[00:08:24.400]

That philosophy has guided the fund for decades and

 

[00:08:27.480]

it will continue to even when Will steps down

 

[00:08:30.800]

from his active PM role to become an

 

[00:08:33.960]

advisor at year end.

 

[00:08:36.320]

There's no doubt that Will Donoff has been one of the most

 

[00:08:38.520]

successful franchises here at Fidelity.

 

[00:08:40.360]

It's so incredible, you two are the

 

[00:08:43.400]

stars that have been chosen to take over

 

[00:08:46.400]

the reins. It's so interesting listening to you speak

 

[00:08:49.040]

because I'm hearing things like you grew up together in

 

[00:08:52.880]

Fidelity working alongside Will and his

 

[00:08:56.000]

team. It sounds like there's such an inherent, strong team

 

[00:08:59.040]

approach to everything and Will has really sort of

 

[00:09:01.560]

institutionalized his way of thinking.

 

[00:09:04.600]

Nidhi, if I could pass the next question to you, I'd love

 

[00:09:07.320]

to just hear a little bit more about your experience

 

[00:09:10.320]

working with Will Danoff and what are the sort of

 

[00:09:13.640]

key elements of his process that you're going to continue

 

[00:09:16.520]

to carry through in the Insights Fund today.

 

[00:09:22.000]

Matt mentioned one of them, which is stocks follow

 

[00:09:23.920]

earnings.

 

[00:09:26.720]

That means we're doing bottoms-up research, we're working

 

[00:09:29.040]

really closely with the research department which covers

 

[00:09:32.840]

over 2,000 stocks globally.

 

[00:09:36.040]

As Matt mentioned, we've been in the trenches with the

 

[00:09:38.960]

research department so we have close relationships there.

 

[00:09:43.600]

Will's other philosophy is keep turning over rocks,

 

[00:09:46.840]

keep looking for ideas, keep learning from companies.

 

[00:09:50.440]

For Matt and I, we sit right next to Will, Will

 

[00:09:53.440]

sits right there, Matt sits on the other side of him, just

 

[00:09:56.040]

this mantra

 

[00:09:59.240]

of keep turning over rocks, that's kind of the air

 

[00:10:02.280]

Matt and I breathe every day, and we have been for

 

[00:10:05.440]

almost 20 years.

 

[00:10:07.240]

We spend a lot of time meeting companies.

 

[00:10:09.760]

In our offices we're usually

 

[00:10:12.880]

packed with a schedule of

 

[00:10:16.160]

back-to-back meetings with CEOs and CFOs on a daily

 

[00:10:19.120]

basis in our offices.

 

[00:10:21.040]

We're very frequently travelling to meet companies

 

[00:10:24.040]

at their offices.

 

[00:10:26.080]

Matt and I are actually going to go to California with Will

 

[00:10:28.040]

next week.

 

[00:10:29.360]

We're going to meet with Jensen at the Nvidia GTC

 

[00:10:32.320]

conference in San Jose.

 

[00:10:35.120]

We're having dinner with OpenAI.

 

[00:10:37.120]

We were out in California in December.

 

[00:10:40.640]

We had an amazing lineup.

 

[00:10:42.200]

These are industry leaders, they're pioneers in

 

[00:10:45.800]

the industry and we're getting a front

 

[00:10:48.800]

row to these

 

[00:10:51.840]

executives and founders and what they're

 

[00:10:54.920]

trying to build, and that's extremely valuable.

 

[00:10:57.600]

I mean, at the end of the day, this is a people business,

 

[00:11:00.920]

you're all trusting us as fund managers

 

[00:11:04.280]

and we're, in turn, trusting these founders

 

[00:11:07.280]

and CEOs to build these

 

[00:11:10.960]

businesses.

 

[00:11:14.560]

I think that trust takes time to build

 

[00:11:17.560]

and it's something Matt and I have worked hard at over

 

[00:11:20.920]

our nearly 20 years at Fidelity.

 

[00:11:24.600]

I can share a few examples but this

 

[00:11:28.240]

trust is really what ultimately helps us

 

[00:11:31.440]

sort of filter through the noise in the market and

 

[00:11:34.520]

really figure out who the winners and losers

 

[00:11:37.600]

will be in a particular industry, as

 

[00:11:40.640]

opposed to getting caught up in the

 

[00:11:44.640]

quarterly earnings reports or the daily

 

[00:11:48.200]

kind of volatility of geopolitical risk

 

[00:11:51.200]

and whatnot.

 

[00:11:52.800]

Google, it was deemed an AI loser

 

[00:11:55.800]

in 2023 and 2024.

 

[00:11:57.840]

We've known the company

 

[00:12:01.320]

since the IPO, we

 

[00:12:05.640]

had a lot of conviction that they have the best AI

 

[00:12:08.400]

technology and the best management team to get

 

[00:12:11.360]

it done. The stock has doubled

 

[00:12:14.520]

since then. Netflix, the stock

 

[00:12:17.520]

got under $20 in 2022, the

 

[00:12:22.000]

market sentiment was awful.

 

[00:12:24.160]

We went out to meet with the management team in summer

 

[00:12:27.440]

of 2022. We were able to

 

[00:12:30.520]

get a really good read on some of the initiatives that they

 

[00:12:33.280]

were launching. That's a management

 

[00:12:36.360]

team that we've known for a really long time.

 

[00:12:39.400]

We bought more, the stock is 5X

 

[00:12:42.760]

since then. It just goes

 

[00:12:45.760]

to show that as long as we maintain these

 

[00:12:49.080]

relationships and continue to build them I think

 

[00:12:52.240]

we will continue to have an edge on

 

[00:12:56.160]

filtering through the noise in the market and betting with

 

[00:12:59.160]

the management teams.

 

[00:13:00.960]

I think that's really

 

[00:13:03.960]

the secret sauce of Will's performance.

 

[00:13:07.960]

I think it's a tradition that Matt and I have

 

[00:13:11.280]

grown up in and will be continuing.

 

[00:13:14.600]

That sounds like an epic trip to California that you have

 

[00:13:17.880]

planned. Some of the names you mentioned there, it's really

 

[00:13:20.400]

incredible that you have direct line of access to them and

 

[00:13:23.600]

such a great advantage of Will Danoff and his

 

[00:13:26.720]

brand but also the bigger and larger Fidelity engine.

 

[00:13:30.680]

Matt, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about private companies.

 

[00:13:33.880]

Nidhi, you just mentioned a couple of private companies

 

[00:13:36.200]

you'll be meeting with in California.

 

[00:13:38.040]

We can see that SpaceX is in the top 10.

 

[00:13:40.960]

Matt, maybe talk us through the process around privates

 

[00:13:44.000]

and how they've been able to add alpha to the portfolio

 

[00:13:47.400]

as well.

 

[00:13:51.480]

Privates can be up to 5% of the portfolio.

 

[00:13:54.160]

The

 

[00:13:57.120]

private investments are really

 

[00:14:00.320]

good. They need to be a good investment in their own right

 

[00:14:03.120]

but they're also a great source of information

 

[00:14:06.480]

for us.

 

[00:14:07.960]

Now because companies are staying private longer

 

[00:14:12.320]

they're now at record high in terms of percentage

 

[00:14:15.280]

of the market, close to 10% of the market.

 

[00:14:18.120]

Having access to the privates is a differentiator

 

[00:14:21.960]

versus passive investing.

 

[00:14:26.160]

One of the things that's interesting about SpaceX is that

 

[00:14:28.880]

we were able to invest in the company really

 

[00:14:32.200]

early through Fidelity's private investing

 

[00:14:35.200]

platform.

 

[00:14:37.280]

That was when the business was still sort of a

 

[00:14:40.280]

to-be-proven launch provider.

 

[00:14:42.800]

We underwrote the opportunity on the

 

[00:14:45.800]

ability for them to achieve reusable rockets alone,

 

[00:14:49.520]

but over that time the company's evolved

 

[00:14:52.560]

dramatically as it expanded into satellite communications

 

[00:14:56.200]

with Starlink which is a key driver

 

[00:14:59.200]

of cash flow. Our position in SpaceX

 

[00:15:02.520]

has grown the best way possible really

 

[00:15:05.760]

mostly through the success of the business so it's

 

[00:15:09.120]

grown into a bigger position.

 

[00:15:12.560]

Our original investment basis was under 10 billion

 

[00:15:14.640]

valuation, I think, Nidhi.

 

[00:15:17.840]

As the company's continued to execute

 

[00:15:21.800]

the value has compounded and is rumoured to IPO at

 

[00:15:24.880]

a valuation of over 1.5 trillion.

 

[00:15:28.000]

They can't all be 150 baggers but...

 

[00:15:31.760]

You'll do your best.

 

[00:15:35.440]

I think what's fascinating about

 

[00:15:38.480]

SpaceX seeing the company up close

 

[00:15:41.680]

and getting the insight into how remarkable

 

[00:15:45.040]

Elon is at solving problems.

 

[00:15:48.360]

I remember Nidhi and I and Will visited

 

[00:15:51.440]

the Falcon rocket engine in L.A.,

 

[00:15:55.440]

one thing that really stood out was this manufacturing

 

[00:15:58.600]

philosophy.

 

[00:15:59.840]

Traditional aerospace companies often

 

[00:16:02.840]

design a single very large complex engine and

 

[00:16:05.960]

SpaceX instead was building many smaller engines

 

[00:16:09.000]

with a standardized design and then combining

 

[00:16:12.080]

them to generate more thrust.

 

[00:16:13.920]

That enabled them to manufacture

 

[00:16:17.560]

at scale faster, improve reliability

 

[00:16:20.520]

and then iterate off those units.

 

[00:16:22.920]

This idea that

 

[00:16:26.000]

Elon was pursuing was a vertical integration.

 

[00:16:29.200]

If a component in the supply chain wasn't available from a

 

[00:16:32.080]

supplier they were literally producing parts right

 

[00:16:35.400]

there on the assembly line, sometimes with 3D printers.

 

[00:16:39.560]

We saw something similar when Starlink satellite

 

[00:16:42.600]

was still in the early phases.

 

[00:16:45.600]

We went to the manufacturing facility, we

 

[00:16:49.320]

do these third-party expert calls and everyone

 

[00:16:52.720]

else outside of SpaceX and all the experts were telling

 

[00:16:55.800]

us that satellite interlinks with lasers

 

[00:16:59.160]

to connect the satellites wouldn't be solvable because

 

[00:17:02.400]

in low earth orbit the lens wouldn't burn up

 

[00:17:05.360]

on reentry and you simply just can't have thousands

 

[00:17:08.400]

of objects raining down on earth.

 

[00:17:11.480]

With this concern in mind we

 

[00:17:14.440]

go to the factory, the engineer's

 

[00:17:17.640]

giving us the tour and showing us how they solve

 

[00:17:20.760]

this unsolvable problem by inventing a new solution

 

[00:17:24.080]

using aluminum lens instead of the

 

[00:17:27.200]

hardened glass.

 

[00:17:28.920]

That ability for the network to then be a mesh system

 

[00:17:32.080]

where data can hop around space enabled them to win

 

[00:17:35.120]

government contracts and now play a bigger role in

 

[00:17:38.440]

direct to cell phones.

 

[00:17:40.000]

It's these experiences in meeting with the management

 

[00:17:42.720]

teams, Will always says the passive

 

[00:17:45.720]

indexes aren't meeting with the management teams,

 

[00:17:49.080]

they're not touring factory floors, and they're

 

[00:17:52.120]

not even asking questions let alone the right questions.

 

[00:17:59.280]

It's that engineering culture and pace of innovation

 

[00:18:02.520]

at Starlink that has really driven their success.

 

[00:18:05.720]

It's early, there's other engineering problems

 

[00:18:08.960]

to be solved but we might be talking about space data

 

[00:18:11.960]

centres next.

 

[00:18:13.840]

Truly incredible, 150 bagger.

 

[00:18:16.160]

Go ahead, Nidhi.

 

[00:18:18.680]

I was just going to add, Will not only

 

[00:18:21.640]

says to turn over rocks but he always says show

 

[00:18:24.640]

up to a meeting, ask a good question.

 

[00:18:26.920]

To Matt's point, the passive funds are not building

 

[00:18:31.120]

relationships with these companies, they're not walking the

 

[00:18:33.520]

factory floor.

 

[00:18:35.280]

I think because we've built some of these relationships

 

[00:18:38.160]

over the years, management teams really appreciate the long

 

[00:18:41.160]

term strategic questions that we ask

 

[00:18:44.160]

which makes them, in turn, more available to

 

[00:18:47.160]

us, and I think more honest with us about the risks and

 

[00:18:50.320]

opportunities which then helps us have a

 

[00:18:53.280]

more informed view on the investment thesis.

 

[00:18:56.640]

Netflix, for example, I covered the stock

 

[00:18:59.640]

from 2012 when they just

 

[00:19:02.640]

had gotten into streaming and no one really believed in

 

[00:19:05.320]

them through 2020.

 

[00:19:08.280]

Matt covered it after that but by that point

 

[00:19:11.280]

they had over 200 million global

 

[00:19:14.240]

subscribers.

 

[00:19:16.640]

That journey was the one on which I was able to

 

[00:19:19.600]

build a relationship with them because Fidelity sort

 

[00:19:22.720]

of believed in what they were trying to achieve.

 

[00:19:27.400]

I had a chance to speak at three of their executive

 

[00:19:30.920]

off-sites where they had 900+ plus of their

 

[00:19:34.080]

top employees present.

 

[00:19:36.560]

I hosted four of their

 

[00:19:40.080]

quarterly public earnings calls in 2021.

 

[00:19:44.680]

This is a relationship that they

 

[00:19:47.840]

really value as well so when we

 

[00:19:50.840]

go out there or we're trying to figure out

 

[00:19:54.120]

what their next move is they're available

 

[00:19:57.520]

to us.

 

[00:19:59.120]

It's sort of this two-way street.

 

[00:20:02.160]

I think it's it's always been a really great

 

[00:20:05.760]

partnership for Fidelity with these management

 

[00:20:09.040]

teams built over many years across multiple analysts.

 

[00:20:13.200]

You make a good point, Nidhi. It's not just the quantity

 

[00:20:16.400]

of meetings it's the quality of meetings.

 

[00:20:19.280]

I'm thinking about how simple sometimes

 

[00:20:22.960]

the questions even need to be.

 

[00:20:25.920]

What are you most excited about as a management

 

[00:20:29.000]

team, getting that what really makes the business

 

[00:20:32.440]

unique.

 

[00:20:34.560]

I'm thinking about this meeting we had,

 

[00:20:38.480]

just as an example of how a typical meeting

 

[00:20:41.440]

might go, a

 

[00:20:44.760]

little over a year ago we met with Casey General Stores,

 

[00:20:48.800]

the ticker is CASY, it's a $25 billion market cap.

 

[00:20:52.720]

Casey's operates gas stations in the Midwest.

 

[00:20:57.840]

Your baseline going into that meeting might be how could

 

[00:21:00.600]

gas stations generate durable alpha?

 

[00:21:04.440]

Early in the meeting Will immediately started

 

[00:21:07.480]

asking about food, their food offerings.

 

[00:21:11.800]

The CEO of the company really lit up.

 

[00:21:14.040]

It turns out Casey's is a top five

 

[00:21:17.080]

seller of pizzas nationwide from only 3,000

 

[00:21:20.400]

locations in the US.

 

[00:21:22.680]

The CEO is explaining one of the secrets is to

 

[00:21:25.840]

make the fresh dough on-site daily.

 

[00:21:28.960]

Moreover, it got right into the heart

 

[00:21:31.960]

of the economic driver of the business which is how having

 

[00:21:35.360]

popular food, other consumables as

 

[00:21:38.640]

well as gas, in one place helps them beat standalone

 

[00:21:41.880]

pizza chains or standalone gas stations because

 

[00:21:45.280]

they have more flexibility on price and they drive better

 

[00:21:48.360]

foot traffic.

 

[00:21:49.760]

Even differentiated models in

 

[00:21:52.920]

competitive industries can profitably win share but

 

[00:21:56.040]

you might not get that insight if you don't

 

[00:21:59.040]

meet with the company, if you don't ask the right question

 

[00:22:02.040]

and have this open mind.

 

[00:22:05.080]

Matt, have you gone and tasted the pizza?

 

[00:22:06.680]

Is it as good as they say it is?

 

[00:22:08.760]

It's pretty good.

 

[00:22:10.720]

I spent some time in New York

 

[00:22:13.680]

so my pizza bar is pretty high.

 

[00:22:15.440]

Pretty high, yeah, I can imagine.

 

[00:22:17.760]

We've got lots of questions coming in from the audience so

 

[00:22:20.240]

I'd love to get to those.

 

[00:22:21.720]

Lots of questions around today's market environment.

 

[00:22:24.560]

Nidhi, let's start with you and talk a little bit about key

 

[00:22:27.560]

themes that are in the portfolio.

 

[00:22:29.320]

Technology is one of them so let's start there and what are

 

[00:22:31.880]

you seeing broadly within the tech space right

 

[00:22:35.000]

now?

 

[00:22:38.160]

Really, the topic of the day is AI.

 

[00:22:44.000]

It's sort of a newish topic for the market but for

 

[00:22:47.160]

us it's a topic that we've been focused on for

 

[00:22:51.240]

well over a decade.

 

[00:22:54.400]

We've been investors in Nvidia for

 

[00:22:57.880]

over a decade.

 

[00:22:59.440]

I remember going out to

 

[00:23:02.480]

California to meet with Jensen in,

 

[00:23:05.680]

I think it was 2011 or something,

 

[00:23:08.960]

when he was talking about AI.

 

[00:23:11.920]

Matt and I have both covered Google

 

[00:23:15.240]

over the years and they've been at

 

[00:23:18.600]

the forefront of AI.

 

[00:23:20.240]

It was more focused on machine learning and recommender

 

[00:23:23.440]

systems in the past and it's moved to large language

 

[00:23:26.480]

models more recently and even more recently

 

[00:23:29.560]

we're talking about agents.

 

[00:23:32.160]

I think this has the potential to alter

 

[00:23:36.040]

almost every industry so that's something

 

[00:23:39.080]

that Matt and I are spending a lot of time on.

 

[00:23:42.240]

The infrastructure buildout for AI is

 

[00:23:45.320]

spanning across not just

 

[00:23:48.560]

the tech value chains like semiconductors

 

[00:23:51.800]

and networking and compute

 

[00:23:55.160]

but it's also found its way into the industrial

 

[00:23:58.560]

sector with companies that are providing power,

 

[00:24:02.080]

companies that are providing labour, electrical

 

[00:24:06.520]

equipment. It's really kind

 

[00:24:09.520]

of found its way into other

 

[00:24:12.520]

parts of the market.

 

[00:24:14.320]

Now as we're looking towards the application

 

[00:24:17.440]

development phase of AI

 

[00:24:20.720]

we're really trying to think about what are the industries

 

[00:24:23.960]

and companies that will win and

 

[00:24:27.080]

lose with AI.

 

[00:24:30.400]

There will be companies that will

 

[00:24:34.600]

have larger addressable markets, they will have stickier

 

[00:24:37.360]

products, they will have higher margins, and then

 

[00:24:40.480]

there's companies that will face more competitive

 

[00:24:43.520]

intensity, have lower margins because they have to

 

[00:24:46.680]

pay an intelligence task tax to the

 

[00:24:49.920]

large language model providers.

 

[00:24:52.760]

We're in the early phases of trying to sift

 

[00:24:55.720]

through all of this and figure out what

 

[00:24:58.840]

are the spots that we really want to play in.

 

[00:25:02.160]

Matt, we've recently seen more broadening of the market

 

[00:25:05.440]

of late, can you talk us through how you're

 

[00:25:08.440]

seeing things there and any other opportunities

 

[00:25:11.600]

outside of the technology space that have piqued your

 

[00:25:13.840]

interest.

 

[00:25:16.800]

Like Nidhi said, I think a lot of the AI

 

[00:25:20.000]

focus and returns has been on infrastructure and the

 

[00:25:23.080]

bottlenecks around standing up this seemingly insatiable

 

[00:25:26.720]

demand for compute.

 

[00:25:29.120]

That CapEx has reached 2.5% of US GDP.

 

[00:25:34.280]

You see a lot of action in semiconductors, memory in that

 

[00:25:37.400]

supply chain. Well, why is this happening?

 

[00:25:40.240]

Compute is becoming intelligence and

 

[00:25:43.480]

with agents compute can use tools or complete tasks.

 

[00:25:47.160]

I think, just like Nidhi, I think where the puck is going

 

[00:25:50.160]

is where can the application of

 

[00:25:53.480]

the intelligence for business processes, where can

 

[00:25:56.480]

that improve customer value proposition?

 

[00:25:58.600]

This is a big theme.

 

[00:26:00.560]

We've seen this in surprising places like transport

 

[00:26:03.560]

logistics and insurance underwriting.

 

[00:26:05.600]

We're asking every management team how they're

 

[00:26:08.760]

going to transform their business and trying

 

[00:26:11.760]

to discern where it can't be competed away,

 

[00:26:15.120]

those advantages.

 

[00:26:17.280]

The most important driver is always going to be earnings

 

[00:26:19.640]

growth.

 

[00:26:20.640]

I think independent of AI

 

[00:26:23.880]

aerospace aftermarket is a theme we

 

[00:26:26.840]

have exposure to, small-cap defence with

 

[00:26:31.560]

defence budgets going up but also

 

[00:26:35.040]

how the role of technology and warfare

 

[00:26:38.080]

is evolving.

 

[00:26:39.520]

There's some really interesting startups there.

 

[00:26:43.360]

Electrician labour contractors are

 

[00:26:46.720]

in very high demand because of more power

 

[00:26:49.960]

infrastructure that's needed.

 

[00:26:52.960]

We meet with companies that do automation for warehouses to

 

[00:26:56.120]

support e-commerce,

 

[00:26:59.360]

spectrum capacity for space-based broadband

 

[00:27:02.640]

has been a trend.

 

[00:27:05.800]

There are demand trends out there and we own

 

[00:27:08.760]

many of them.

 

[00:27:10.280]

I think one of the key ones, though, is going to be

 

[00:27:13.400]

how this intelligence layer gets implemented

 

[00:27:16.520]

and where's the enduring

 

[00:27:19.560]

differentiation there through customer value

 

[00:27:22.760]

improvements.

 

[00:27:24.400]

Okay, well, in the interest of time we will leave it there

 

[00:27:26.800]

but it's been wonderful speaking with both of you today and

 

[00:27:30.000]

hearing the stories of your journey so far

 

[00:27:33.080]

at Fidelity, all the incredible lessons that

 

[00:27:36.200]

you've learned over the years from Will Danoff, and

 

[00:27:39.640]

that you continue to have great access to company

 

[00:27:42.800]

CEOs. Will has taught you such incredible

 

[00:27:45.880]

work ethic. We hope to see you in Canada in the

 

[00:27:48.920]

near future but thank you so much for the conversation

 

[00:27:51.840]

today.

 

[00:27:53.720]

Thank you, everyone.

 

[00:27:56.560]

<b>Thanks for watching or listening to the Fidelity Connects</b>

 

[00:28:00.480]

<b>podcast. Now if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to Fidelity</b>

 

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<b>We'll end today's show with a short disclaimer.</b>

 

[00:28:33.440]

<b>The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the participants,</b>

 

[00:28:37.280]

<b>and do not necessarily reflect those of Fidelity Investments Canada ULC or</b>

 

[00:28:41.200]

<b>its affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and should not</b>

 

[00:28:45.200]

<b>be construed as investment, tax, or legal advice.</b>

 

[00:28:47.760]

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[00:28:50.080]

<b>Or an endorsement, recommendation, or sponsorship of any entity or securities</b>

 

[00:28:54.400]

<b>cited. Read a fund's prospectus before investing, funds are not guaranteed.</b>

 

[00:28:59.200]

<b>Their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated.</b>

 

[00:29:02.760]

<b>Fees, expenses, and commissions are all associated</b>

 

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<b>with fund investments.</b>

 

[00:29:07.360]

<b>Thanks again. We'll see you next time.</b>

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